So I was watching The Avengers again over the weekend and during one of the fight sequences, there is of course a Wilhelm Scream. This was not something I failed to miss the first time I watched the movie. More precisely, when I watched The Avengers the first time through and the Wilhelm Scream happened, my reaction was “oh, Christ. The Wilhelm Scream.” And this is because the Wilhelm Scream now must be in every movie ever, because it’s stopped becoming an in-joke and started becoming a sign of nerd credibility. I mostly blame this Youtube video for that:

And now every action/blockbuster movie has to have a Wilhelm Scream in it somewhere. All of the Harry Potters had them, The Hunger Games had one, all of the Marvel flicks have one, I think The Expendables had about half a dozen, et cetera. But the problem is this: whenever I hear a Wilhelm Scream I am taken out of the movie experience. My suspense of disbelief ends and I am just a guy sitting in a movie theatre who realized he just heard the same damn scream for the umpteenth time, because I recognize it. Every time.

I hate that feeling of being reminded I’m watching a movie, and for the sake of a cheap in-joke at that. When I watch a movie, I want to be thrilled during the fight scenes and exciting bits where a Wilhelm Scream might conceivably be heard. I want to experience that “ooooch” feeling when somebody really gets it, and if that moment is punctuated with a Wilhelm Scream then I’m not going to get that feeling. Instead, I’m just going to be thinking “oh, a Wilhelm Scream. Huh.” I mean, it would be as if a character stopped acting and suddenly just turned to the camera holding a handful of bacon and said “look! Bacon!” Because people love bacon. You would want to smack them if they did that, right? I mean, I already want to smack every webcomic artist who uses “bacon” as a punchline, and I’m not even paying for the webcomic, whereas I am typically paying in some manner for the movie.

Seriously. Sound people in Hollywood. Go find some other scream noise. Don’t use the Wilhelm Scream for another ten years at least. We all need a break from it.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard it — well, I’ve heard it, obviously, but I never actually heard which specific scream was The Scream. Now I know, and you’ve ruined movies for me too. I hope you’re happy.

(And why does the Firefox spellcheck dictionary not have “movies”? Or, for that matter, Firefox? Life is full of mysteries. At least these mysteries can be fixed, thanks to “Add To Dictionary”…)

There’s another one, this sound effect of a really squeaky metal door opening, that I’m aware of in the same way. There was some video game years ago that used it as the sound for opening and closing on EVERY LAST DOOR, and now every time I hear it in something I spend the next thirty seconds telling myself, “Hey, that sound was also in ________, and _______, and ________, and…”
The entertainment industries have seriously got to retire some of these things.

Also: I’m somehow absolutely not surprised to see that Pablo Hidalgo compiled that video.

What gets me is that it’s such a specific scream. It works best as a two-beat thing, like in Star Wars: “Oh shit, I’ve been shot! This really hurts OH GOD I’M FALLING!” It sort of starts as a pained “Arrrgh!” but jumps to a shrill, terrified “AHHHH!!!” So, you know, use it in those situations. Unfortunately, it gets tossed in all over the place now.

Can you imagine a similar thing in a different art form? Like if novelists all starting including some little in-joke to one another: The Wilhelm Adverb, perhaps.

I don’t care about the Wilhelm scream (don’t notice it really). What absolutely kills me is when they use that creepy canned kids’ laughs that sound like no genuine human laugh ever made. It’s high pitched and has 3 chuckle parts to it. And it sets my teeth on edge every single time.

I remember an interview with Ben Burtt years ago, in which he talked about how, when all the sound guys in Hollywood were updating or replacing their sound effects files (for Dolby and other higher quality stereo systems), they were all debating about WHICH of the old sound effects should be kept or re-created.It was felt that certain effects had aquired, through their re-use in specific contexts, a subliminal resonance- that although they wouldn’t conciously realise it, audience react differently to “God Thunder” than “Frankenstein Thunder”.(Or the way a director like Sergio Leone would use different kinds of “gunshots” so that the audience could tell WHICH character was shooting even if they were off-camera when they fired).Utimately, they DID end up dumping a lot of old sound effects because they’d just lost their impact through over-use.
So there you have it… the creator of The Wilhelm Scream would probably choose to stop using it.

Dear Author,
I do hope you realize that even though I was blissfully ignorant of the existence of the “willhelm scream” before, you have now ruined every action movie ever for me.

This is on reddit. Thousands of people have now read this, thousands of people who will now recognize a willhelm scream when they hear it. Thousands of people whose movie-going experience you now spoiled by making them aware of this.
And all just because you felt you had to whine about it. Thanks for letting me in on this movie-ruining piece of trivia. Thanks for condemning me to share your horrible fate.

Next time, consider writing a letter TO THE STUDIOS, not to the damn internetz.

it is so wonderful to hear the wilhelm scream its like candy for the ears, a treat for informed people who like it. It’s in so many films and it bonds all of us together. Why don’t you ask people to stop using ‘lux aeterna’ in previews or that guy with the same deep voice to announce, ‘in a world’ it’s just a personal trope that you must accept.

@caffinatedlemur – I know that laugh. It is in everything, especially commercials. And you’re right, it sounds nothing like a laugh I’ve ever heard a child produce. I hate it. But I’m glad to know I’m not alone in hearing it.

Also on my list of stock SFX I can’t stand that seem to be in everything is this one recurring surprised crowd “OH!” sound. Like if the clumsy protagonist of a commercial does something embarrassing in a crowded area (like falling down a flight of stairs, or dropping an entire wedding cake) and everyone in the room sees, the crowd lets out a collective surprised/shocked/oh-my-gosh-is-he-okay? “OH!” sound. THE WORST.

I love the Wilhelm scream so much. Its every occurrence delights me; it is like the filmmakers are personally tonguing my ear. You just know they all high-five each other after they add the Wilhelm scream, it is the crown jewel of action movies.

In fact I think they don’t go far enough. After each Wilhelm scream, somebody else should be heard to shout, “Oh my god not Wilhelm!” Even if the movie is set in prehistoric times or Imperial China, it should be made obvious that there is a character named “Wilhelm” and he just fell off something.

In fact doesn’t Wilhelm really deserve to be a more developed character by now? He should appear in every movie, like when the family dog is trapped the volcanic lava, suddenly Wilhelm swings out of nowhere and rescues him. Kind of an all-purpose deux ex machina, except noisier, because Wilhelm can only communicate with that one scream, due to brain damage from all the falling he’s done over the years.

“Wilhelm! Thank god you’re here!”

“AaaaAAAUGH!”

“Ha Ha! That’s our Wilhelm!”

I think the ideal action movie, or indeed ideal movie of any kind, would be nothing but explosions and Wilhelm screaming for two and a half hours. In 3-D. This seems so obvious that it cannot be argued against, except by a very wrong person who doesn’t know how to sit back and have fun.

I agree. Also there is another scream. I’m not sure if it has a name, but it’s been in movies, and at least one video game. Usually a person is stabbed and thrown off a cliff, and the scream sounds like “Ahh SHHHHIIIIIII”

I also take issue with the “Tarzan howl.” It was used in one of the Star Wars abominations when a Wookie swung by a vine/rope during a battle.

I consider it completely shameful not to push myself to be the best I can be. For these sound guys to use a Wilhelm, the Wolfenstine door sound (which is free, btw) or any number of other cliche Foley (read: metallic scraping “ping” sound of a sword being pulled from a leather or fabric scabbard or just lifted of a table), is completely hackneyed and, like the aforementioned Star Wars films, proof of how unoriginal film producing has become. Pathetic.

Can the Wilhelm scream be female? Because I have heard a similar female scream be used in many movies and TV Shows. My favorite over-used sound effect has to be the screeching cat sound effect. I’ve even got my 5 year old to point it out to me when he hears it. “oooooooohWEEEER-WEEEEEER!!” only way I can describe.

to be honest, i came here assuming the wilhelm scream was that other, more drawn out meme of a scream.. UURRREEEEEEEYEAAAAAAAAHHHHHHhhhh. (off the top of my head i can only reference the soundbite for the academy in the original starcraft)

What a baby, movie sound effects artist use the scream ON PURPOSE. It’s part of history and an inside joke among sound effect artists. If something as lame as a scream ruins a movie for you, go watch the Disney channel. It’s a part of movie history, and should give you a chuckle not ruin a movie.

As somebody who’s deaf, I’ve never had any problem with hearing the same scream soundtrack repeated over and over again. Whenever I’ve seen the captioned note that somebody screams, I always have a different scream depending on the situation or circumstances. I had no idea that pretty much every Hollywood scream sounded the same.

Is it really that bad? There are thousands of sound effects that get re-used over and over again, I notice some (doors opening, hinges creaking, various electronic noises, etc), but I’m sure I miss heaps more.
For the most part I don’t care that much.

As somebody who’s deaf, I’ve never had any problem with hearing the same scream soundtrack repeated over and over again. Whenever I’ve seen the captioned note that somebody screams, I always have a different scream depending on the situation or circumstances. I had no idea that pretty much every Hollywood scream sounded the same.

Well, not every Hollywood scream. Probably not even most of them. It’s just that this one appears in a whole lot of movies. Wikipedia says 225, including TV shows and video games. It appears once in each Star Wars and Indiana Jones movie, but I’ll bet it only appears once in each movie. All these people upthread complaining about MGK pointing it out to them have heard it and probably just didn’t realize they’d heard it more than once. I’d read about it before this, but I don’t think I noticed it in The Avengers or any of the Harry Potter. I can believe it was there and they’ve been overusing it, but it’s far from every single scream in a movie.

The Hospital PA one always gets me mentally going into Queensryche’s “Operation:Mindcrime”. The one I really notice every single time, though, is the DOOM 2 Spawn Cube. That and the BFG/Old BSG Viper launch.

@Doyle: Know just what you mean. It was the effect used for every door opening in Castlevania 64, and as one of the approximately three people who liked that game, I heard it a lot. Now every time I see a creaky door open in movies, a part of me mentally prepares to fight the giant skeletal bull.

Personally, I didn’t notice the Scream in ‘Avengers’, but I don’t begrudge anyone who did their irritation.

[…] = 'http://widgets.digg.com/buttons.js&#039;; s1.parentNode.insertBefore(s, s1); })(); TweetShareEmailDoes hearing the “Wilhelm Scream” pull you out of your movie-watching experience? One blogger’s reaction to hearing the famous sound-effect included in “The […]

Thank you for posting a blog about what I was thinking. I haven’t seen The Hobbit yet, and I happened to be watching a TV interview with the Lead Art Director who showed a couple clips. And right there, as a goblin fell off a bridge, was that accursed Wil-f*cking-helm-Idiot-scream! I cursed out loud, very violently and more than once as I was reminded that one of my favorite book’s movie adaptation was in effect ruined by that boring old trope.

It really makes me seethe with anger every time I’m ripped out of my suspension of disbelief and firmly planted into “Hey, jerk, you’re watching a movie and none of this is real, sorry about that $13 sucker!”

Truth. I didn’t even know this was a thing until tonight. I just noticed it in yet another movie I was watching, and went searching for annoying re use of common Hollywood screams. when people on the outside of your joke start getting annoyed, it’s time to move on, Hollywood. there’s already a severe shortage of creativity and originality in your industry. there’s no need to pollute perfectly good movies with inside jokes that have long since run their course.

I could not agree more. When a sound guy thinks he’s being cool by adding that immersion-breaking crap for the sake of a shitty in-joke, he’s basically giving out a huge middle finger to every single person on the film crew who is working hard at making the movie an immersive experience to begin with.

Dear sound effects / nerd, seriously grow up. The Wilhelm is no longer funny, let it go, try to get a date, move out of your parents house, and, more importantly, let the Wilhelm Scream finally die. Unless you can’t get a date, move away from your parents, just can’t be original. Even an “in” joke ceases to by funny when it’s overused.

It isn’t in any Harry potter movies, so I don’t know what you’re talking about… It definitely isn’t overused, and it’s still a funny inside joke, and after reading all these comments, most people don’t know about it which makes it even better! If you think using the scream means filmmakers are being lazy or uncreative, then think again, because making a movie is so much hard work already, why bother re-using a scream if not for a purpose? And the purpose is to be funny! I don’t see how so many people here have failed to understand this…

Really? You’re watching a movie about a giant green anger monster, a guy in a flying suit of armor, an unthawed WWII super soldier and a Norse god fighting a legion of aliens and it’s the Wilhelm Scream that breaks you suspension of disbelief?

“Not a Cry Baby Movie Fan” tried to point out that it’s done on purpose but fails to realize that we already know that. The author is trying to explain that it’s just not as hilarious and/or subtle as the sound engineers seem to think that it is.

I’m no movie buff, nor do I do any kind of sound editing; I’m just an average movie watcher, yet even I can clearly recognize this sound effect when it is used. I’ve recognized it for many years and grew tired of it long before I even knew what it was called. Sure, not everyone recognizes it, but please don’t just assume that the general audience won’t notice or care that this sound effect is used and that it will just be your little inside joke.

It’s kind of like inserting a cartoon drawing of Waldo (from “Where’s Waldo?”) into a crowd of real people a live-action movie. If you’re trying to make a ridiculous movie, then maybe something like that would be funny, but if you’re trying to make an action movie, it just doesn’t make sense.

Yes, I agree 100% for exactly those reason you mentioned, I thought I was alone in this. It’s made even worse when it’s used in suspenseful moments. It’s OKAY in comedy films though but still a sign of laziness.

And yet, sadly there is a die-hard fan base for a scream of all things.

I’m shocked a sound editor would still want to use any part or form of the Wilhelm Scream. Once Family Guy started using it, that should have been the obvious clue that it was time to move on. It stands out like a sore thumb. It ruins the tone of any scene it appears in. And when I hear it in films like Lord Of The Rings I just have to hang my head. Any film that uses it should lose half a star these days. It’s like the sound editors just want to be like every other schmuck before him/her. “Me too! Me too! I want to use it too!” This is not creative. Obviously not original. It is no longer some secret connection to other sound editors. You are cheapening every single production you put it in. How about being the revolutionary sound editor that starts the trend of never using it?! It’s so sad that it would be revolutionary. Don’t try to be slick and alter the scream or use one of the other less-used recordings from the Wilhelm Scream set. Just don’t. Step up and be professionals in your field. Please stop ruining films or any TV show trying to be more serious than Family Guy. Anyone who thinks it isn’t overused just isn’t paying attention. I hear it on nearly every action movie I watch.

Sure there are a few other overly-used samples. For me, the common one of young children laughing and playing stands out. And a couple of the crowd cheering ones. But there is no excuse for the Wilhelm screams. To every sound editor reading this: Every time you want to put in one of these Wilhelm Scream samples I want you to feel dirty. I want you to feel shame. I want you to know that you have now damaged the film you were trying to do a good job with. You make yourself look more amateur and less creative. Less distinctive. Don’t feel like you need to get one under your belt. Just don’t. This is the worst way you can do your job. Whoever is in charge of hiring the sound editor should have a contract that prevents the sound editors from using it. It is an epidemic of awful and someone needs to make a stand.

To those of you just discovering this awful epidemic, it isn’t new. I first read about the scream about ten years ago and it had already been used in hundreds of films. I can’t even imagine how many films have been tainted since then.

If this scream “takes you out of the movie” then you are total moron. The Wilhelm Scream is classic & every time I hear it, I consider it a tribute. It also makes me laugh every time I hear it & in no way does it take anything away from the film it’s used in. I could ask a thousand people about the Wilhelm Scream & maybe one in that thousand would know what I was talking about.
Your stupid comments make me wanna say AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHGGGH!

I know it’s a first-world problem par excellence, but I have the same problem with the Wilhelm scream – I’m watching “The Return of The King” that has a high Wilhelm quotient and every time I hear it, it’s annoying, like an in-joke that’s gone beyond the point of being funny. It does “take me out of the movie” when I hear it,I’m thinking of the sound editor smirking to himself about how clever he’s being and wondering how many of his buddies will pick it up, unaware of how many people know exactly what’s going on. Equally I hate the “diddy laugh” (google it) that appears in so many movies, games and TV adverts when children enter the frame. We have the most “first-world problem” of illnesses – sample sensitivity.